Big Box Boom is Bad for Hawaii

I read with great interest and curiosity your article on how unaffected small businesses are on the Big Island by the benevolent Big Box retailers, especially in light of this morning Honolulu Advertisers factually based article referenced below, which gives a truer, darker foreshadowing of the long-term adverse economic impacts these predatory big box retailers have on local economies all over the U.S.

See:

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Feb/19/ln/ln36a.html

I suggest you study the numerous examples of how Big Box retailers have literally destroyed small-, medium-, and large-sized businesses elsewhere as well as right here in our front yards in Hawaii. Although the Wal-Marts and Borders etc. are relatively new, the damage to local stores such as Longs and supermarkets is now becoming evident. I have talked to residents in Mililani and the observation expressed is how the Mililani Town Centers’ Longs is now a ghost town. Now if this is how unaffected our businesses are, I hate to see what domino effect these Big Box retailers will have in the foreseeable future.

How blind can you all be to the reality?

This means while we are being promised a short-term spurt in property tax payments to our County governments, it’ll mean a long-term steep drop-off of GET payments, income tax payments, and visitor tax revenues, and the real death of small business throughout the state.

Hawaii Reporter is an award-winning, independent Hawaii-based news and opinion journal founded in 2001 and launched in February 2002. The journal's staff have won a number of top awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, including the top investigative news reporting awards, business reporting awards, government reporting awards, and online news reporting awards.